Police response on Frame Lake Trail too close for comfort for Yellowknife skateboarder

Corey Walsh thought he was heading away from trouble.

The 34-year-old was enjoying a "leisurely stroll" on the Frame Lake Trail with his electric skateboard when he came across two people speaking frantically into aphone. When they asked the name of the street they were on Matonabee he deduced they were talking to police.

Walsh stuck around long enoughto watch two police officers arrive, and shoot video of them pulling guns on a man on the trail just west of Matonabee Street.

After a few minutes, he decided to clear out. He jumped on his skateboard and headeddowntown along the trail.

"That's when I saw two cop cars through the trees, travelling at a high rate of speed, and I knew they were gonna turn onto the trail and so I had a split second decision to basically veer off into the ditch."

An officer in the first vehicle had his window opened. Seeing Walsh standing in the ditch, he asked if he was OK.

"And I go, 'Yeah, well, I'm not physically injured,'" Walsh said.

"I was kind of in shock though, because they had no sirens on, they did not beep and they did not even slow down."

'Excessively unsafe'

The trail is often busy with walkers, bikers, and joggers.

"I'm not trying to ... get anyone in trouble or anything, but I thought that what happened is a little bit excessively unsafe, even considering the circumstances."

Walsh said there were already four police officers on the scene when the two extra vehicles pulled up.

In a news release Thursday, RCMP said they received acall at about 7:40 p.m. on Wednesdayreporting there was someone with a gun on the trail. They took cruisers onto the trail looking for the suspect.Ultimately no weapon was found.A suspect was taken into custody but not charged.

Police acknowledged that someone had to "move quickly off the pathway," and noted that an officer checked on the person.

"When we receive a call for service from a person concerned for their personal safety involving a possible weapon, especially a firearm, we must respond with expediency," said StaffSgt. Yannick Hamel,the Yellowknife RCMP detachment operations manager,in the news release.

The news release also noted that RCMP officers are trained in the safe operation of vehicles, "even during a potential high-risk situation."

That may be true, Walsh said.

"But ... I'm not good at taking a leisurely walk on a pedestrian trail expecting oncoming vehicle traffic, you know what I mean?"